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Driven by the incredible developments of technology in hull and especially sail design over the past 30 years, the powers that be are examining closely whether we should have a more modern version of race track on which to exhibit our skills. Toplevel feel very strongly that the idea of a race is to complete circuits. Changing this in our opinion is the equivalent to a Formula One race being run on a hill climb, or a horse race being unable to view the start and finish. By definition a race track consists of laps, whereas different types of racing consist of other skills needed than in lapping, in any sport!

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In order to sail the beat as quickly as we can we need to keep the best average VMG that we can. In this blog we will discuss the influence of shifts on our VMG and the use of a compass to improve our tactical decision making

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Top sailors spend a lot of time practicing and training on their own. This is against so many “words of wisdom” that the former ISAF give to emerging nations. In fact we can see that young sailors who spend a lot of time training alone are often successful.

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Whilst many asymmetric kite boats struggle to reach effectively and the reaching legs have been dropped from their courses, the skills of reaching are still very important for traditional classes such as Laser, 420, 470 etc. This blog is aimed at those classes, and hopefully some of the information here will also help our asymmetric sailors when they have overlaid a downwind mark! The potential losses and gains on a reach, particularly rounding the top mark and approaching the reach mark are huge.

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The tuning of a boat involves gaining the optimum speed and height from a given rig on a given boat. If we change a hull, sail (main, jib, or kite) or mast we have to tune the sail to the mast and the rig to the boat, and often change our technique to optimise speed and height.

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During a racing beat there are some fundamental differences between different phases of the leg, this mean our decisions and priorities as racers should be different between different parts of the course

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Muscles were never really considered too vital in sailing until around 2000. There were of course people who believed that Lasers and Windsurfers needed to be fit, but generally this was not carried over to other classes. Now we see fit sailors winning, and less fit sailors rarely doing so. There is a systematic approach that can be taken to physical training, and this begins with the core.

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We are featuring the legend that is Bruce Kendall here because, as with everything he’s involved with, Bruce takes it to another level, to the extreme. He is an amazing character. He didn’t just “do” an Olympic campaign, but had a career spanning over a couple of decades, won innumerable World, Continental and Olympic medals, was THE yardstick to measure success

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The movement of water over a course area is rarely uniform. Because of this factor the racing sailor has to have an understanding of where currents are at their maximum, how this helps or obstructs progress and where a current will take you sideways away from the mark, or sideways towards the mark. Where possible, using current in different areas to enhance the speed around the course can be much more rewarding than finding a lot of boat speed through increased wind speed.